United Nations translator, and her father, Cheng Ching, an oil and
pharmaceuticals tycoon, gave Vera and her brother, Kenneth, a very
comfortable childhood. When she was seven years old, Wang's
parents bought her a pair of ice skates for Christmas. She fell in love
with skating and competed during her early teens and twenties. She
proved herself a talented figure skater, competing at the U.S. National
Championships and placing fifth in 1968 and 1969 with her skating
partner, James Stuart. "The only thing that I loved as much as
skating were clothes," she once commented to
People
magazine in July 1991. It was a good thing, because not qualifying for
the 1968 Olympic team and not wanting to tour with an ice show gave Wang
a new career direction.

After graduation from college in 1971, Wang began working for
Vogue
magazine. At the end of her first year, she was promoted to fashion
editor, the youngest in
Vogue
's history. In a nostalgic piece written for the magazine in
March 2001, editors said of Wang, "As a young fashion editor, she
used the perfection she learned as a skater to produce shoots with an
ice-cool edge." Despite a few fashion-shoot snafus, Wang held the
position for the next 16 years.

After her stint at
Vogue,
Wang worked as a design director at Ralph Lauren; her responsibility
included overseeing 13 accessory lines. Throughout her career, she
wanted to be a fashion designer and this desire started to grow while
she was shopping for a wedding gown for her upcoming nuptials to Arthur
Becker in 1989. Frustrated with the gowns she saw, she designed her own
and hired a dressmaker to create it at a cost of $10,000. Discovering a
market niche for contemporary and elegant wedding gowns, in 1990 Wang
opened her own bridal boutique with financial backing from her father in
the upscale Carlyle Hotel on Madison Avenue in New York. She carried
elegant bridal wear by well-known designers, but also to design wedding
gowns herself.

Her first international attention as a designer came when she designed
Nancy Kerrigan's skating outfit for the 1992 and 1994 Olympics.
In her march 2001 profile in
Vogue
Wang wrote, "I felt as though my life had come full circle; I
didn't make it to that level of competition, but my clothes
did." Most notably, her designs are rich with luxurious fabrics
and very classic lines. Her name alone conjures up images of fabulously
simple wedding gowns. Brides as glamorous as Sharon Stone and as
traditional as Karenna Gore have sought her out for their special day.

Wang has revolutionized the way people look at bridal dresses—
transforming them in the last decade from cookie-cutter froufrou
concoctions to stylish, couture-look gowns taking into consideration
that brides might actually be grown up and want sophisticated dresses.
"Before we brought sexuality to weddings," she said, most
brides "looked like the bride on top of a cake, very
decorated," she
stated to
USA Weekend
in May 1997. Her ready-to-wear wedding dresses average $3,500.

The next sensible step in her career was to begin designing eveningwear.
"Fashion offers no greater challenge than finding what works for
night without looking like you are wearing a costume," says Wang.
The world's most fashionable women, including Jane Fonda, Helen
Hunt, and Kate Capshaw, quickly embraced her eveningwear. Celebrities
continue to seek her advice on their most important appearances. Along
with her bridal and eveningwear, Wang offers Vera Wang Made to Order, a
collection of couture designs, fur, and footwear at her boutique. Her
designs can also be found at Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys, Bergdorf
Goodman, and Neiman Marcus.

In 1997 Wang and Italian shoe company Rossimoda developed a line of
women's dress shoes, catering to the designs of her evening and
bridal gowns. The shoes have been very popular, given the design and
platform heel that gives women height. "Clothes are my passion
and my knowledge. I've studied fashion from every
angle—historically and critically, cerebrally and
emotionally." She understands how a woman wants to feel in her
clothes. "Dressing celebrities gets you noticed. But I really do
design for myself. And when my husband says I look sexy, I know
I'm going to have a good night," she told
InStyle
magazine in December 2000.

Wang is a genius when it comes to understanding the fit of clothing. In
her
InStyle
profile, she said, "For me, the magic is in weightless clothes,
cutting armholes that add grace, cleverly exposing the best parts and
sensuously draping fabric over less fabulous ones, offering enough
internal support to allow a woman to feel secure while being totally
comfortable. A woman is never sexier than when she is comfortable in her
clothes."

Vera Wang's first signature fragrance launched in spring 2002,
under a licensing agreement with Unilever Cosmetics International. Her
first book, entitled
Vera Wang on Weddings,
became available in bookstores in 2001.

—Donna W. Reamy

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